An electric hand tool such as a drill requires ready access to the drill chuck as well as to the tool bits. This need was particularly acute where the user was working in a limited access area and particularly so where the tool bits and chuck were not immediately accessible. Heretofore tool bits were generally boxed, and it was inconvenient if not impractical to keep or mount the box immediately adjacent the work space. That is, the user would have to leave the work space to find the tool bits or the tool bit box in order to replace the tool bit, and then return to the work place. Another prior art approach was to keep the tool bits in the pockets of the user, but this had the disadvantage in that the user was not always mindful which tool bits were in which pocket. The user in retrieving a tool bit from a pocket would not be aware that the wrong tool bit was inadvertently selected until viewing the tool bit after removal.
The art desired a tool bit holder holder which permitted ready access to the tool bits without the user leaving the immediate work space which provided positive identification of the tool bits to be selected, and with minimum use of the user's hands.